DIY radiant floor tubing installation video

Of the different types of radiant floor heat, the efficiency isn’t affected as much by the delivery system, meaning whether it is an air heated floor, electric mat radiant floor, or liquid glycol hydronic radiant floor. What matters most is the amount of insulation below the floor and the fuel source, whether that’s gas or electric. You may have seen this page but have a look if not, there is a comparison of the pros and cons of the different systems – 

Which is the best type of radiant floor?

To give a quick summary though, forget gas and just think electric – the efficiency of electric resistance heating doesn’t change based on how it’s delivered. A baseboard heater, hair dryer, toaster, boiler or electric mat floor generate the same amount of BTUs per Watt whether you are heating a wire, or a wire heats air or water and then forces it through tubing in a floor. So hydronic, air heated floors or electric mats heating systems are effectively the same in efficiency. 

The differences are subtle, but in the case of the air heated floors, the heater is in the floor itself so all the heat is contained in the floor rather than escaping into the mechanical room where the boiler and manifolds are all exposed. So the heat is contained in the floor, but also distributed a bit more equally throughout the house. It just ads abit of comfort and balances the heat better through the house.

Air also has a lot less latent heat in it, so when the thermostat hits the desired temperature and shuts off the heat, it will stop heating. A hydronic  radiant floor has so much heat in the water that oftentimes you can overshoot the thermostat setting and overheat as it is released. Air tubes are also a bit easier to install, and less risky to damage during install or afterwards. If you pierce a pex tube in your floor and don’t know it and fix it, the system won’t work. If you put a screw into an air tube it makes no difference.   

Radiant heat can be a complete heating solution for a home, but to do so successfully there are considerations. Any radiant floor heating system (gas or electric, hydronic or radiant air heating tubes) would need to be sized for the heat load, and so it would need to be designed by an HVAC professional. 

To understand the concept of radiant heating and its limitations, I’d start with these pages about home heating and comfortable home design - Designing Homes for Human Comfort and also our page on the benefits of radiant underfloor heating systems.

To be sure I understand your question, is this a new home build or a renovation project? We cover the addition of radiant floor heating in a renovation project here. If you are looking to install a hydronic radiant floor on top of a subfloor that sounds like you have a foundation, is that correct? Radiant floor heat (as you will learn from the article above) only heats single floors at a time, so if you have a basement you’ll need some heat down there. 

We have it ingrained in our heads that ‘heat rises’, which is, in a word, wrong. ‘Warm air’ rises, but heat goes in any and all directions. With a forced-air heating system, some heat will find its way to the upper floors, but that’s not really the case with radiant heating, instead it gets cooler the further you are from the source. So, the temperature at knee level will be warmer than at your head level (not by much, but a bit).

So yes, radiant heat can heat an entire home when designed for it. And while a radiant system can provide the necessary heat for a home, it may require make-up heat on an HRV system to meet building code requirements depending on where you are. What is your climate zone or closest city /province / state?